As many PC gamers can attest, the STEAM storefront has gone from an innovative place for showcasing ideas to a landfill full of burst appendixes. The amount of “shovelware” is rampant from lack of quality curation on the digital games retailer. With that in mind, what better time than now to do some curating of my own by bringing you some of the best recent STEAM trailers and a god awful one.
All the games below are either recent releases or available on STEAM Early Access which allows players to have a hand in shaping the final product through feedback.
Robots In The Wild by Heatbox Games
The game reminds me of playing horizontal Tetris. Which as I type and say that in my head sounds like a sex thing, but to my knowledge has not been a thing yet. Players of RITW will guide falling blocks in order to build paths for the planet’s robot inhabitants to make it to safety. Each unique planet will have conditions to survive under; some have comets destroying the land while others will put you in preservation mode asking you to survive for “x” amount of time. RITW looks as promising as it does addicting. A play on the old adage of balancing challenge with artistic merits. We’ll find out soon as Robots In The Wild comes to early access on February 15, 2017.
Visit the game’s site for more details.
Linelight by My Dog Zorro
I remember playing this game at PAX. I’d picked up in the middle of someone else’s game and lasted about two seconds, which made me think to myself well this is stupid, this game is stupid, NO YOU’RE STUPID. As I looked bewildered at the screen, the developer explained its premise and restarted me. I was taken back by how much I could enjoy this level of minimalism. There’s a layer of complexity in Linelight that few comparable games do well, this seemingly simple premise of take control of a line named “Dash” to explore the puzzles and mysteries sets players up for hours of “ah!” moments revealed by an incredible and rich atmosphere.
Find out more about Linelight here.
Super Pixel Smash by Rank 17
Thank whatever god you believe in this isn’t some Adam Sandler movie tie-in, as I feared when I first saw it on STEAM. Super Pixel Smash feels like a love letter to all the things my Nintendo Power Glove should have been. The Pixel Paddle and Gravity Gauntlet are your tools of destruction here as you’ll use them to keep the momentum gaining orb moving in order to score enough points for new levels. Sure it sounds easy, when you play this game in VR it adds a new level coordination and don’t flinch that takes some practice.
Super Pixel Smash is available on STEAM.
Death Squared by SMG Studio
Death Squared is one of those games which could ruin friendships. The game makes you solve puzzles together or die trying! Each player needs to guide a robot to a colour-coded goal, but the path is beset with deadly traps and hazards. Teams of players will need close observation and communication to keep each other alive and discover a solution together. Yet another game which I first got to try at PAX, playing with a bunch of people I didn’t know and having fun in what I can only describe as competitive person’s Gatorade…even though I think that’s just regular Gatorade.
Find out everything about Death Squared here.
Dark and Light by Snail Games
Dark and Light is one of those STEAM PC games I’m always weary about. Something captured for a trailer with added texture and fidelity that never seems to make it to the final product. Console gaming is ludicrously littered with such games but the more notable offenders came through PC space. So far everything I’ve seen about Dark and Light points to it being a legitimately good looking game. As for how it will play out; I haven’t had any hands-on time with the game, but it does promise a vast RPG sandbox which will see players learn to craft as they unlock abilities. The sheer visuals of this world alone could put it on your radar. Dinosaurs, Griffins, trolls and more make this open world look alive. No matter how big a world game developers build if there’s nothing there then what’s the freakin point? Dark and Light seem to already have a handle on this and I can’t wait to dive into it.
Dark and Light is something that should definitely be on your radar, find out all about it on the game’s site.
Just to illustrate my point about the existence of capital punishment, here’s a game simply called GO AHEAD
Someone actually took time out of their day to make this! WTF, on the Steam page it says “English,Chinese” under languages yet I can’t read a fucking thing. As you’ll ask when you look at the video, why is there a shiny dummy with a sperm cell for an arm? I honestly can’t tell you. Quality control is not a problem exclusive to STEAM anymore, as dribble like Life of Black Tiger somehow made it to the PlayStation store, but it is a problem that puts a black eye on the industry. If you love PC gaming become involved in the STEAM page community where you can vote eyesores like the one above out of existence.
